Damião Ximenes-Lopes, a person with mental illness, was hospitalized for psychiatric treatment at a private psychiatric clinic that operated within Brazil’s public health system. Ximenes-Lopes died three days following hospitalization while undergoing psychiatric treatment. He endured “inhuman and degrading” conditions and died under violent circumstances in the hands of hospital staff. Ximenes-Lopes’ sister filed a …Read more

Glegg was injured in a bicycle accident and required surgical repair of fractured bones with metal implants. She alleged that following surgery, she experienced extremely painful allergic reactions to metal surgical implants manufactured by Smith & Nephew, causing her physical disability and depression. She sued her physicians and Smith & Nephew in tort. It was …Read more

The appellant, J, is an ethnically Tamil citizen of Sri Lanka. While living in Sri Lanka, J was captured by, and forced to work for, a militant group called the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (“LTTE”) between 1991 and 1993. The LTTE released him in 1993. In 1995, J was detained, interrogated, and tortured by the …Read more

K.L was a 17 year old pregnant woman who was denied an abortion despite complications in her pregnancy. The foetus was anencephalic. Peruvian abortion laws allowed abortions in case there was a danger to the life or health of the mother. Anencephalic condition posed a life-threatening risk to K.L. The baby died after four days …Read more

A 17-year-old Peruvian minor was denied a legal therapeutic abortion when tests indicated that her fetus was anencephalic and a gynecologist and obstetrician advised her to terminate the pregnancy, informing her that continued pregnancy would cause risks to her life. The hospital director refused, alleging the abortion would be unlawful according to the Peruvian Criminal …Read more

In 1999, it was disclosed that for many years tissue and organs had been taken at or after post-mortems on deceased children, which were retained without the knowledge of the parents. Hospital post-mortem examinations were generally carried out following the death of a person in a hospital, provided, in accordance with the Human Tissue Act …Read more

Daniel Tibi was a gem merchant who was arrested in 1995 while he was driving his car down a street in Quito, Ecuador. He was detained by officers of the Quito police force without a court order and taken by plane to the city of Guayaquil, 600 kilometers from Quito, where he was placed in …Read more

Physician María Teresa De La Cruz Flores was detained on March 27, 1996, and charged with terrorism for providing medical services to members of Sendero Luminoso, a guerrilla group in Peru. She was prosecuted before a secret (“faceless”) judge and sentenced on November 21, 1996, to 20 years in prison under a provision that seven …Read more

Nine inmates died from a fire at juvenile detention center “Colonel Panchito López” Juvenile Reeducation Institute (Center), one inmate died from a bullet wound sustained at the Center, and 37 inmates sustained injuries and smoke inhalation from three fires at the Center. The Center was under the authority of the Ministry of Justice and Labor …Read more

The Respondent, SGLB, was an Iranian national who arrived in Australia without a visa in June 2000. He was immediately placed in immigration detention. In his initial interview with immigration officers there was “no suggestion by him that any fear of persecution and possible incarceration by the authorities there motivated his departure from Iran” (para. …Read more